ATERBALLETTO / MicroDanze
February 10, 2026 | 6:30 PM
Italian Cultural Institute
710 Sansome Street, San Francisco
Event open to the public | Registration required
MicroDances are short creations by Italian and international choreographers, designed to inhabit palaces, halls and auditoriums, but also small monumental or urban spaces. From 2021 to the present day, MicroDances have had significant exposure in highly evocative locations such as the Acropolis Museum in Athens, the National Museum of Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome, Les Halles de Schaerbeek in Brussels, and Brescia, Italian Capital of Culture 2023. Starting with the 2023/2024 season, MicroDances have been the performative core of Italia Danza. Imagining the possibility of transforming the venues of Italian Embassies and Cultural Institutes into surprising spaces where dance can be discovered, the performances draw attention to a fundamental aspect of Italian creativity, the contemporary, capable of creating new languages and new audiences. Thanks to co-planning with the Directorate General for Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MicroDances have been performed in Prague, Brussels, Zagreb, Stockholm, Dakar, Sofia, Cologne, Oslo and Madrid.
PROGRAM
EPPUR SI MUOVE (And Yet It Moves)
Choreography: Francesca Lattuada
Music: Ludwig Van Beethoven (Symphony No. 7, Second Movement – Allegretto)
Wrapped in the refined and ethereal costume by Bruno Fatalot, a performer moves solemnly on a pedestal, carried away by the poignant and mysterious notes of Beethoven’s Allegretto. His dance fascinates and seduces, imposing like a prayerful chant.
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NEAR LIFE EXPERIENCE
Choreography: Angelin Preljocaj
Music: Air (Jean-Benoit Dunckel, Nicolas Godin)
Near life experience is a search into the different possibilities of the body, possibilities that refer to intermediate sensations. It is an attempt to detach oneself from space and time. A kind of eclipse of the self, a search through this imaginary amnion – a new writing in the space left empty by the body. (Angelin Preljocaj)
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A GIG
Choreography and costumes: Diego Tortelli
Music: Atom Tm, Son Lux
A “gig” is an opening or closing act. Something short that serves to warm up the audience or to say “goodnight” to those who came to see us. In this MicroDance I want to use the two dancers to closely engage the audience’s gaze, as if it were a small surprise in a context where a performance was unexpected, a small “gig”. (Diego Tortelli)
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ATERBALLETTO
The CCN/Aterballetto, built around the historic Aterballetto company founded in 1977 and which became the National Dance Foundation in 2003, is the first National Choreographic Center established in Italy in 2022 on the initiative of the Ministry of Culture. Located in Reggio Emilia, in the renovated spaces of the Fonderia, the Center is a hub for creation, hosting, and project development dedicated to contemporary dance and dialogue with other arts.
The CCN/Aterballetto promotes a vision of dance as a tool for cultural and social growth, with an open, inclusive, and innovative program. The company, composed of sixteen dancers, works on new productions by internationally renowned choreographers and on the enhancement of an important repertoire of established works.
Characterized by a strong commitment to research, a plurality of styles, and the use of new technologies, the CCN/Aterballetto is today a dynamic and cosmopolitan entity, present in major theaters and festivals in Italy and abroad.
Concept: Gigi Cristoforetti
Production: Fondazione Nazionale della Danza/Aterballetto
Co-production: Fondazione Palazzo Magnani
Within the framework of An Ideal City, a public art project
In partnership with Les Halles de Schaerbeek (Brussels), Greek National Opera (Athens)
Co-financed by the Creative Europe program of the European Union
The project is part of Italia Danza, a co-project curated by the Directorate General for Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the MAECI and CCN/Aterballetto for the promotion of Italian artistic heritage abroad.
The performances are designed to be staged within museum and heritage settings or urban spaces, arranged in an itinerant path, giving life to a project capable of addressing different audiences and contexts.
MicroDanze / Atene
MicroDanze / Bruxelles
MicroDanze / Roma
MicroDanze / Brescia
MicroDanze playlist
Italia Danza promo
Italia Danza / Oslo